She descended in a spiraling pattern, following the coiling roots round and round the column of stone. Schools of red and yellow flame-fish darted around her. A massive, grey-green eel, its mouth agape, glared at her as she swam past the crevice it called home. A thicket of plants with wide, purple fronds swayed lazily in the currents.
Iionii barely registered these things; her focus wholly fixed upon the great tangled mass of the roots. She had never seen anything like it before. From each root stemmed countless lesser roots, like bristling hairs, ranging in size from finger-thickness to branches too large to wrap one's arms around.
Finally, Iionii ended her descent upon a crag of stone that jutted out from the enfolding roots. She swam close enough to the roots that she could reach out and touch them should she so choose. Up close, the mysterious roots appeared stranger still. They seemed to be moving against the currents that flowed around them; to move of their own accord, like something animal, rather than a plant.
Iionii could feel the slight tremble in her hand as she slowly reached out to touch the root before her. As her fingers came into contact with the great plant, something akin to a mild electric shock tickled her fingertips.
What are you? She wondered just as a shadow passed over her. She glanced up in to time see the sleek silhouette of a large rayfin gliding by, directly overhead.
Until now, Iionii had all but forgotten the diver's knife in her hand. She tightened her grip and tracked the rayfin as it swam away. She had begun to breathe easier until the deadly fish made an abrupt turn. It was coming back!
Iionii glanced around. There had to be some niche in the surrounding rock in which she could hide herself until the predator lost interest. Yet, if there was such shelter to be had; she could not see it for all of the concealing plant life blanketing her immediate surroundings.
The rayfin passed from sight as its return course took around the colossal stone column and Iionii immediately panned her gaze ahead to the point at which it should reappear. A moment later, the rayfin swam into view again, right where she had anticipated. Only now there were three of them! Iionii wilted inwardly with dread. One rayfin was bad enough, but three…
She pressed herself to the root mass, tucking herself between two of the larger branch roots, her knife clutched to her breast. She tried to still her breathing, to calm the din of her wildly beating heart.
The first of the rayfins swept past her, its luminous red eyes sizing her up in the process. Further out, another of the trio turned and swam straight toward her. As the meters closed, the lethal jaws opened, revealing multiple rows of knife-sized teeth.
Iionii braced herself, her knife ready to strike but, at the last second, the rayfin veered away. In a parting gesture, it took a swipe at her hiding place with its wide, powerful tailfin. The fin impacted the roots between which Iionii had wedged herself, sending a shockwave through the roots, the water, and through Iionii's slight frame. Her knife slipped from her hand.
Without thinking she lunged for the precious blade… and caught it, half a moment before it could pass beyond reach. But in so doing, she had inadvertently abandoned the safe haven of the roots. Still doubled over from retrieving the knife, Iionii was face to face with the third rayfin as the terrible creature rushed straight up at her from the gloom below. She barely managed to reach the sheltering embrace of the roots when the great beast's jaws clamped down but, reach them she did. The rayfin came away with a mouthful of the root's fibrous tissue, its jaws chomping and gnashing the plant into a splintery pulp, as it circled back for a second pass.
Iionii suddenly noticed that the water was tinged with the bright crimson color of fresh blood. For an instant, Iionii thought that she been bitten after all, that it was her lifeblood leaching out into the water. She made a hurried examination and found herself shaken but unharmed.
She wondered if she had somehow stabbed the rayfin without realizing it. She chanced a look out from among the roots only to see the three rayfins locked in a feeding frenzy over the hunk of root. There was so much blood clouding the water around the ravenous fish, that Iionii could not identify the source of it.
It was then she realized that the blood-choked water before her had not become diluted in the least bit. She glanced down. A wide hole marked the spot where the rayfin had ripped away a chunk of hapless root. There was blood, Iionii could tell by the unmistakable smell of it, issuing from the injured plant. Blood?!